Indiana, 1958, 13-year-old Sylvia Likens was tied up in the basement by
her foster mother Gertrude Baniszewski (may God set her soul to flames.
Even hell has no place for such wickedness) where she was tortured,
beaten, starved, burnt and raped by all of the other children in the
neighborhood. The torture went on for 3 months until Sylvia's beaten
body could take no more, and God finally let the pain come to an end.
The reason I use God in the above paragraph is because when I watched the movie The Girl Next Door,
by Jack Ketchum, I actually viewed this poor, poor child as a holy
person. Tied up as if she were on a cross in the basement of her foster
families home, the image is undeniably like that of Jesus on the cross.
The Girl Next Door is based on true actual events that occurred in 1958, and Jack Ketchums The Girl Next Door is pretty much Sylvia's story.
Meg and her younger handicap sister recently had to move in with their
aunt after the death of their family. At first, things seem to go
normal, Meg makes a close friendship with a neighborhood boy by the name
of David (who is actually the narrator of the story), and you are not
quite sure what direction the movie will go in. You are very well aware
that something horrible is about to happen to one of the girls.
As time goes on you realize that their aunt Ruth is a little bit loose
in the head, as she allows neighborhood children to come into her home
to drink beer and smoke cigarettes. Basically Ruth allows these
neighborhood children to act out as adults, so long as they don't go
home to tell anyone.
The abuse begins early on, when Meg has her breast grabbed by one of
her cousins. When Megs younger sister tries to protect her, she is
beaten by Ruth, which in turn leads Meg to calling the police to report
the abuse.
Unfortunately for Meg, this is when the series of disgusting,
unimaginable and horrible torture begins. Ruth is able to convince the
cops that everything is fine, and shortly after the cop leaves Meg is
tied up in the basement, where she is beaten, gagged, blindfolded and
tied up to a ceiling beam, with nothing but a stack of books to allow
her to keep her balance.
The torture escalates from there. Ruth begins bringing in neighborhood
children to participate in hurting Meg, and this sick group of little
bastards actually enjoy watching this poor girl scream out in agony as
they take turns cutting her, burning her with cigarettes or kicking her.
Not too long into the beginning stages of Megs torture, Meg is
eventually tied to a bed where her cousins, and other children in the
neighborhood take turns raping her.
At this point you are so disgusted by the fact that Meg's friend David hadn't done crap to help her.
Just when you think it cannot get any worse though, Ruth then does the
unimaginable to Meg, and at this point you are truly just wishing that
the poor child would just die, just so the torture would end, and she
wouldn't have to feel any more pain.
There comes a point when enough is enough, and honestly watching The
Girl Next Door will truly bring you to tears, because in the middle of
these horrid events you are rooting for Meg. Hoping with all hopes she
will find a way to escape, hoping that perhaps David will go and tell
someone, or maybe one of the neighborhood children will say something to
stop the torture going on. Shortly though after that you are saying...
dear God, just take her, end this!
The Girl Next Door will literately be one of those movies that you
will never ever forget, an impact so strong that it will likely give you
nightmares. The worst part being that it is all based on actual events.
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